move files and folders based on their creation date

[mgroen]

Hi,

is it possible with xyplorer, to move/organize files (including subfolders) based on their creation date?

For example:
all files created between 1/1/2012 until 31/12/2012 are to be moved (automatically) to folder "2012"
same for 1/1/2013 - 31/12/2013 to be moved to folder 2013
and so on and so on.

So I need to be able to set conditions on move actions and define source and target folders.

Is this possible with xyplorer? If so, how?

Thanks,
Mathijs

[highend]

By scripting but... no, not automatically (scripts can't run continuously because they block XY's interface while they're running).

[Garonne]

Hmmm, actually I thought move on rename wasn't restricted to inline renames... Strange...

Don? Can't we get a way to have move on rename with the "regular" rename options, too?

[TheQwerty]

You could use the Move/Copy/Backup To... commands.

1. Select the items you wish to move.
2. From the menu select Edit | Move To... or File | Move/Copy/Backup To... | Move To | Move To....
3. In the Move To dialog click Browse....
4. Select the destination folder, for example: C:\Destination
5. Modify the destination shown to include a date variable, for example: C:\Destination\<datec yyyy>\
6. Select Move.

You can skip selecting the destination folder and just use <datec yyyy> to create the folders in the current path.

You can modify the yyyy to be any date format, for more information see the Advanced Topics > Variables > Date Variables section of the help.

Instead of using the created date you can use another date by changing the datec to one of the following:

• date - Current date.
• datem - Modified date.
• datec - Created date.
• datea - Accessed date.
• dateexif - EXIF data (generally only useful for photos/images).

[Garonne]

Ok, different approach but gets us to the expected result, I guess...

[highend]

but gets us to the expected result

No, not really. He is talking about automagical file & folder management. An external tool (something like https://www.deventerprise.net/DirectoryMonitor or http://www.nodesoft.com/foldermonitor or an ahk.exe that is able to monitor file system events (or at least do it as a repetitive task) would be the way to go... And they need help from a script file (e.g. .bat / .vbs, etc.), too because their date variable doesn't deliver the year only (iirc).

[Garonne]

Ok, I didn't get the "automatic" thing... Maybe because I never expected XY to do stuff automatically for me.

XYplorer is a File Explorer and thus a tool to help us doing our stuff smooth and (hopefully) easy. It was and will never be a tool to do stuff automatically without user interaction.

Maybe that's why I always thought of a "move on rename" or "move to variable folder" operation as these are the closest things I deem reasonable for a File Explorer like XYplorer.

Moving and/or sorting files automatically would be a File or Data Management Software. (Well, that's how I would call it, at least) That's an entirely different Software.

[admin]

I don't think mgroen meant "automatically" in that auto-pilot way. Rather as opposed to "manually". TheQwerty's approach is the perfect solution IMO.

PS: Something like the Country & Western script here (http://www.xyplorer.com/release_12.20.htm#CTB) could work as well when modified to separate files by creation date...